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IGN had the luxury of receiving a translated Famitsu interview from Microsoft with the father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi. The interview mentions that the game is at a 70% completion rate; so to those who were doubting the game not seeing its December release can ease their worry a little knowing that Mistwalker is hard at work with the game. Also, Nobuo Uematsu will handle the game’s score, which is almost done as well. The score will considerably differ from his score in Mistwalker’s other JRPG Lost Odyssey. That’s a good thing I suppose as I never really had a problem with Blue Dragon’s music.
To sum up the interview in a few bullets:
- Load times are currently being reduced to the point where they aren’t so noticable (think Rogue Galaxy)
- Battles will feature the wall system where player and enemy units will have front guards who are in charge of protecting the rear units (think Suikoden V)
- Magic attacks > physical attacks, so protecting sorcerer’s in the middle with the front guards is necessary
- Learned skills will be necessary to equip accessories; learned skills will also vary between the mortals and the immortals of the game
- Item synthesis works by combining items imbued with magical power along with a weapon
Sounds like good stuff. The fact that the game’s world will be affected by the major battles you lose, thus getting rid of the Game Over screen, really seems to be the most interesting thing for me. Does that mean the game will also have multiple endings? Who knows!
